Mark Halperin Calls Obama a 'D*ck' on air (VIDEO)
Elena Vnorovscaia / Chişinău / Moldova.ORG / -- Mark Halperin, editor-at-large Time long and political analyst, made a quite unhappy joke during a popular MSNBC morning show, sending the hosts into a brief moment of panic.
He referred to the attitude of the President during its press conference and insulted Barack Obama in an inappropriate way.
The off-color remark about President Barack consisted of a vulgar term referring to a part of the male anatomy. Mark Halperin’s speech got on air.
Halperin: Are we on the seven-second delay? I wonna characterize how the president behaved…
Co-anchor Joe Scarborough: We have it. We can use it. Go for it. Let's see what happens…
Halperin: I thought he was a d*ck yesterday…
Joe Scarborough: Oh My God! What are you doing??? I can’t believe it! Did we delay that???
White House spokesman Jay Carney said the comment was an inappropriate thing to say about any president. Halperin quickly apologized on the air Thursday.
"I completely agree with everything in MSNBC's statement about my remark," he said. "I believe that the step they are taking in response is totally appropriate. Again, I want to offer a heartfelt and profound apology to the President, to my MSNBC colleagues, and to the viewers. My remark was unacceptable, and I deeply regret it."
MSNBC suspended him indefinitely hours later. The network also apologized to Obama.
"Mark Halperin's comments this morning were completely inappropriate and unacceptable," said MSNBC spokesman Jeremy Gaines in his statement.
"We apologize to the President, the White House and all of our viewers. We strive for a high level of discourse and comments like these have no place on our air."
Halperin is the latest in a string of MSNBC suspensions this past year. Scarborough himself was suspended last November for violating the network's campaign contribution policy, as was Keith Olbermann, who left MSNBC several months later.
More recently, Ed Schultz was suspended in May for calling pundit Laura Ingraham a "slut." And former MSNBC dayside host David Schuster also got a suspension in 2008 for complaining that Hillary Clinton had "pimped out" her daughter, Chelsea, on the presidential campaign trail.
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